John McTernan is a commentator and political strategist who works internationally. He was Political Secretary to Tony Blair and most recently was the Director of Communications for Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Ease and authority make David Cameron hard to beat

Do you remember what David Cameron was doing last week? Playing table tennis with President Obama, doling out burgers with him at a barbecue, standing shoulder to shoulder at a string of events. What about Ed Miliband? He got married, and there were rather sweet pictures of Ed and Justine dressed up for the event. And what about Nick Clegg? To be honest, you don’t have a clue, do you? At a guess, you might hazard that there was yet another “signal” of just how tough he was going to be in taking the Tories to task about NHS reforms, but you can’t be sure.

Don’t worry, though – your memory is doing its job properly. We think, and recall events, in pictures, not words. That is why the clichés about every picture telling a story, and every picture being worth a thousand words, are right.

This is an insight that is at the heart of the new Downing Street operation. The shake-up after the departure of Andy Coulson brought in Craig Oliver, an experienced TV producer. The difference is already clear: a government communications operation that thinks in terms of pictures, not merely tabloid headlines. If you see a man in a suit, you have no idea what the government message of the day is, unless you are listening to what he says. See him in shirtsleeves, in a GP surgery, having his blood pressure taken by a practice nurse, and you get it immediately.

Bearing that in mind, it doesn’t matter that you can’t remember a word the Prime Minister said last week. What matters is that you can recall what you saw – two men utterly at ease with each other, and exuding absolute political authority.

Ease and authority. That is what counts in modern leadership: do you look and act like a leader? Malcolm Gladwell famously pointed out in his book Blink that we make our minds up rapidly about key qualities of individuals. And we are right to do so – it is the way our brains are wired.

For voters, David Cameron passes this test of instant approval, as he has ever since he made his famous note-free speech at the 2005 Tory conference to seize the leadership. Indeed, his leadership qualities are already being touted as the key difference, the key choice, for the general election in 2015. For all their current tribulations, Tory MPs cling to the idea that in a straight choice between Dave and Ed, the winning line will be: “Whatever you say about Cameron, he’s a leader.”

Now, you can lose this quality – just look at Nick Clegg, briefly the most popular of the party leaders, his reputation now irretrievably tarnished because he broke his word over tuition fees. And it can be gained. Ed Miliband is working hard on this, but Cameron has set a high standard. Until Miliband dominates his shadow cabinet, his party and the Commons, then Tories will feel safe to bet on their guy.

This is why the briefing that has started in some Tory quarters against the Downing Street operation and its strategy is not just misguided, but dangerous. In particular, Andrew Cooper, the new head of strategy, is being blamed for the pause – and promised policy changes – on health reform. This is seen by some Tories as capitulating to opinion polls, or what the Left used to condemn as compromise with the electorate.

The truth is that, as in so much of life, perception is reality. The Health Bill is seen by too many people, especially doctors and nurses, as a threat to the essence of the NHS. In such circumstances, giving in with good grace is the only advisable course. Is this a return to government by focus group? No. It is an acknowledgement that governments don’t merely have to get a mandate once every four or five years. They have constantly to make the case – and secure the support – for change.

This is not, however, a recipe for spin. It is actually fundamental in restoring respect to politics. The balance of power between rulers and ruled has shifted permanently. Politics is perhaps properly seen now as a service industry, and the customer – or in this case, the voter – is always right. It is a much healthier situation than when politicians of all hues subscribed to Douglas Jay’s dictum that “the man in Whitehall can, and does, know best”.

To see the importance of this kind of thinking, consider an exercise that Cooper conducted in his previous life as chief executive of the polling company Populus. He gave voters a pile of photos – pictures of stereotypical British family types – and asked them to say which symbolised Labour and which the Tories. Invariably, for the Tories, the focus groups chose a mum and dad with two children standing outside a detached house. For Labour, they chose a single man in vest and track suit, sitting on a bed watching daytime TV and drinking a can of super-lager. That is where Cameron and his team want Labour to stay. And their worst fear is that a picture of Margaret Thatcher comes to stand, once more, for the Tory party – not because of her undoubted achievements, but because her image remains toxic to large swaths of those whose votes they need.

Despite some setbacks, the last year has been one of triumph for Cameron, from conjuring a majority and a mandate from a minority position to forging a genuine partnership with the US President. He has even had a Clause IV moment, apologising to the people of Derry for Bloody Sunday. He is not just the truly dominant figure in the Coalition, but its only real communicator. If he carries on this way, he will be very hard indeed to beat.